Pictures from Indy

Huzzah!

Okay, this is totally overdue, but I finally got my Brickyard pictures I promised and the special reports from July! To make a long story short, I thought they were lost from where they were stored and only recently managed to recover them. There are a few that didn't come through, but I got 98% of the pictures back - which is the important thing. Better than none at all!

So enjoy!

The pre-race parade done by big-ass US trucks for each driver. Think of the carbon emissions!


The calm before the storm at Casy Mears pit stall.


Driver Parade - Sam Hornish Junior


Driver Parade - Michael Waltrip


Driver Parade - Bobby Labonte


Driver Parade - Jeff Burton


Driver Parade - Denny Hamlin


Driver Parade - Kyle Busch


Driver Parade - Kevin Harvick


Driver Parade - Dale Earnhardt Junior


Driver Parade - Tony Stewart


Driver Parade - Carl Edwards


Driver Parade - Jeff Gordon


Driver Parade - Mark Martin


The beasts await to be let off the leash


Tony Stewart, Juan Montoya, David Ragan & Patrick Carpentier


Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne & Jeff Gordon


Marcos Ambrose, Martin Truex Junior, AJ Allmendinger & Bobby Labonte


Revving Up For The Start


Paul Menard makes his way to the pits with damage


Terry Labonte on pit road for an early stop under yellow


Michael Waltrip after his tangle on track, limps back to the pits


Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin & Carl Edwards lead the way to the pits


Jamie McMurray & Reed Sorenson


Casey Mears, Travis Kvapil and Terry Labonte


Matt Kenseth after his tyre let go - he was a little too fast for my camera!


A familiar sight at Indy - everyone to pit road


Busy Times


The pit crews definitely earned their wage on the day

A Day At Indy

Waking up on race morning, it is quite a giddy feeling. The alarm was set in plenty of time, just in case. But the excitement I was feeling was more than an enough to get me up in plenty of time. A few minutes to gather my stuff and have a quick brekkie, and I was down in the lobby waiting for the bus to bring me to the airport.

There were no direct shuttles to the track from the hotel, only the airport. Getting a taxi solo would be a tad bit costly. There was a couple of guys I met on the bus to the airport heading that way too. Likable chaps, whom I had a nice chat with about the race, it been my first time and such. It was only when I arrived at the airport for the shuttle bus that I realized I was there an hour too early for the bus. Despite that, a long queue was already waiting.

The two guys I met, along with another couple, we decided to get a taxi. It was 45 dollars, split five ways, so pretty cheap looking at it like that. On the way, we learned that the couple had actually one a competition to be there and were photographed with the pole winner the day before. Actually, it wasn’t their first time to win. They had pictures of when they won an IRL contest and a few others. Definitely had me wondering if they had the luck of the Irish running through them.

Even at nine am, Indy on race day was already busy. The sun was beating down, the sidewalks were filled with people streaming to the track. I got my ticket at the booth easy enough. Another reason for wanting to be there early was that I had to pick mine up, since I only booked mine a few days before. 90 dollars for a race ticket was a great deal.

I split up from the others to mooch around outside the track and work through the vendors. It was a shame it was so warm, I didn’t really feel like lugging around a whole bunch of memorabilia I would’ve loved to picked. The one thing that really caught my attention was how drivers, mere hours before they were going to be strapped in to go racing, were out signing autographs in the haulers. Kvapil, Gilliland, Robby Gordon and Dave Blaney all had long queues of fans waiting to get their John Hancock. In hindsight, I should’ve queued – but I wanted to get in to the track.

My seat was located at the entrance to pit lane, so I had a long way to walk down the long home straight. I picked up some essentials; food, drink and more drink for the day. The last thing I wanted to do was to hope and skip down for them during the race. I took my seat nice and early and enjoyed the view, listening to the announcers as the seats filled – just waiting for it all to begin.

It’s one thing to watch motor-racing, but you can’t really experience it without seeing it live. The sights, the sound, the smell – it truly is one of a kind. The crowd too play their part. The boos hissed out for the brothers Busch and the likes of Gordon and Johnson. Cheers rang out for fan favourites Earnhardt, Kahne and Martin. Even as the cars toured around on the pace lap, the sound was epic.

And then the beasts were let loose. Standing up with who knows how many thousand people, cheering as they roared past for the first time. Then, just standing there for the first five laps. Few words can actually describe it.

So the race wasn’t a classic. The tire problems that arose shut the race down to short sprints before yellows were called out for tire changes. Despite the setback, it didn’t ruin the day. I don’t think anything could ruin the day.

The Brickyard 400 is a race I will never forget.

Special Report: Live from Indy

Greetings readers!

Today is a special report about the Brickyard 400. What makes it special? Yours truly was in attendence for the event.

It was a shame that the event was marred with tire issues. It harks back to the Formula One race a few years ago. Competition yellows had to be called every ten or so laps to ensure that drivers didn't get puntures. From early on it was apparant tires would be an issue, with drivers diving into the pits under green early on.

Pole man Jimmie Johnson battled through it all to take victory. Despite the issues with the race, Johnson was the one constant, running up front all day.

Despite the issues, it was a great event. It's one thing to talk about racing, it's another thing to actually be there and feel it. All I can say it was an incredible awesome experience. The opportunity to go over to the race came extremely late last week and involved a number of plane hops just to make it. But it was well worth it.

Walking underneath the entry arch, the smell of food been cooked and venders selling gear. Drivers like Kvapil, Gilliand, Robby Gordon, Blaney were out signing autographs a mere four hours before they were going to go racing. Up to an hour before the race began, people with pitpasses were up and down the lane, getting a birds eye look.

After paying 90 dollars for a ticket, which must be in our around 60 Euros, I was situated no more than a stones throw from the track, right at the pit entry looking across at the #00 pit. The roar of the engines, the building of the crowd and the festivites. I struggle for words to describe it. Pictures will be up over the coming weeks when developed and scanned.

The experience went to show me how elitist it seems F1 is in regards to fan partcipation. The lenghts Nascar go through on raceday to give the fans a good deal is pretty astounding.

For me, it was an experience of a lifetime.

Got Milk? Dixon Does.

Sunday provided a triple bill of blue ribbon racing. First off we had Formula One from Monaco, discussed above. After which we were treated to the Indy 500.

The Indy 500, for those of you who don’t know, is the Indy Racing League’s premier event. It’s the race everyone wants to win. The race, like the Daytona 500 for Nascar, follows a different format with qualifying. The grid is decided in sessions before a final ‘bump’ day to decide who gets in. This year featured the largest grid in some time for the IRL, assisted by the unification. The race also features a three-wide start compared to the conventional two-wide.

Kiwi Scott Dixon took victory for Chip Ganassi. It was his first time to win the big event. From the off it looked that the winner would come from the Ganassi stable. Dixon and Weldon locked out the front row and was the car to beat. Tony Kaanan rose to the challenge at the half-way point, but the Brazilian’s luck would elude him. After losing grip whilst avoiding his team-mate Marco Andretti, he slid up towards to wall before been t-boned by Sarah Fisher. Andretti would go on to finish second at the event for the second time in three years.
It was an impressive day by part-time driver Tomas Scheckter. The son of 1979 F1 champ Jody, he kept tabs on the lead until a driveshaft problem on his final stop put paid to his hopes. The former Champ car teams had contrasting days. Oriol Servia and Will Power brought their KV cars home on the lead lap whilst the rest all hit difficulties.

Would The Real Kimi Raikkonen Please Stand Up?!

“Paging Kimi Raikkonen. Would the real Kimi Raikkonen please step forward and show your talent.”

Something along those lines must of been the call the Finn got as he boarded the plane home from North America. Since his return from a lacklustre pair of races – or to be more precise a lacklustre season so far, the Iceman seems to have finally found his feet in Ferrari.

At France and then in England we bore witness to the Kimi of old. The racer, the fighter, the Iceman. It begs to question where the real Kimi Raikkonen has been all season. After a dominant victory in the season opening Australian grand prix at Melbourne Kimi has been a ghost stuck in the shadows of Felipe Massa. Questions were rightly asked of his commitment and his drive, especially when he chose to storm out of the Ferrari garage when things went awry at Spain and then at Monaco. This was the man charged with replacing Michael Schumacher.

Now with the return to Europe we finally see the Kimi Raikkonen that drove balls to the walls in a McLaren for victory, even if it resulted in the car breaking down. This was the man that Ferrari coveted to replace Schumacher. This was what we expected from the Finn.

Why has it taken so long for him to become settled? I expected him to struggle at first to find his feet at Ferrari given that Massa was already snug in the team. But the depth of his struggles has been surprising. His rise in form coincides with the re-emergence of Kubica and Alonso to the performance levels expected. The paddock talk has been that the three of them have struggled to adapt to the new Bridgestone compound. After half a season they seem to have finally gotten to grips with how to use them allowing them to challenge their team-mates on a more consistent basis. Raikkonen more so still has a long way to go in adapting his style to turn his raw speed into consistent results. Looking at the reliability of the McLaren’s compared to the Ferrari this year against last year it would appear that Raikkonen’s ‘bad luck’ with reliability has carried over.

Perhaps it is more than ‘bad luck’. McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh commented that he felt Raikkonen drove too aggressively which led to the high amount of reliability issues. His run of reliability woes in the Ferrari lends credence to these comments. Raikkonen will need to learn to adapt if he is finally unlock the potential we all know is there.